Bond makes ‘15 season debut in regular season finale

There was a tripleheader of Edinboro athletics action on Oct. 10 with men’s and women’s tennis, football and women’s volleyball, all hosting home events as part of the 2015 homecoming festivities.

Head Edinboro cross country coach Rick Hammer was interested in making it a fantastic four-pack of action on campus for Fighting Scots fans.

“We kind of posed the idea of hosting a home cross country meet this weekend seeing as it was homecoming,” Hammer said. “That’s a lot of events for our good, but limited number of people in the athletic department staff. So we decided to travel up the road to a small meet in Erie.”

That meet was the Race at the Park, hosted by Mercyhurst, at Pleasant Ridge Park on Saturday morning in Girard.

Many of Edinboro’s top competitors, on both the men’s and women’s teams, sat this event out after undergoing a tough workout on Friday before the meet and are in the final stages of preparation for the PSAC Championships, which are on Oct. 24.

The biggest storyline of the day for Edinboro was the return of Bekkah Bond for the women’s squad. The sophomore made her 2015 season debut at the meet on Saturday after missing the rest of the season due to an injury. The Malone, New York native finished 10th with a time of 20:18.1.

The rest of the ladies who competed on Saturday were looking to battle for the remaining positions in the lineup, according to Hammer.

“We are going to sit the top four on the women’s side,” Hammer said leading up to the meet. “We plan to run the rest of the women’s roster and probably three or four of the guys to get them some extra racing in.”

Following Bond, the next two Scots to cross the finish line were Abby Peters and Cassie Whimoyer, who finished 19th and 25th, respectively. Additionally, Kaitlyn Daubert, Elizabeth Mansfield, Elizabeth Narkevic, Eve Gardner, Brianne Dietrich, Taylor Pompei, Erin O’Brien and Abby Warner all competed for the women’s squad.

On the men’s side, Hammer only sent a trio of freshman to the line. Brady Deaner finished 22nd, Dan Nowak captured 23rd and Nick Bosser earned a 37th place finish.

The top runners will be back in action later this month at the PSAC Championships on Oct. 24, hosted by Slippery Rock. Edinboro’s women’s team looks to defend its team title from a year ago while the men hope to improve on a third place finish.

Tyler Trumbauer is the Sports Editor for The Spectator. He can be reached at sports.spectator@gmail.com.

In a press conference held at 3:45 p.m. Thursday in McComb Fieldhouse, Director of Athletics Bruce Baumgartner announced Interim Head Football Coach Wayne Bradford is now the official head coach, removing the interim tag.

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